Plastic Is Choking Our Oceans

This week we are celebrating Ocean Week from the 8th - 14th June. This is to try and save the oceans from the harm we are causing.

As we all know by now, one of the biggest issues that we are facing is the use of plastic. The oceans are hit the hardest with “we dump eight million tonnes of plastic into the sea every year” by Sir David Attenborough. This is killing the wild life that live in the oceans. Turtles getting trapped in the bags because they think it’s a jellyfish, then chocking on it. Birds are eating plastic instead of fish. Coral turning white because of the chemicals of the plastic and this is not only causing harm to the ocean but this is going into our bodies.

We as humans are consuming plastic particles most days, it’s found in sugar, honey, beer and 90 percent of table salt brands tested positive. If this does not change it’s predicted that by 2050, there will be more plastic in are oceans than fish.

Unfortunately, the fashion industry accounts more than a third of oceans micro-plastics. About 60 percent of all clothing is made up of plastic, this includes polyester, acrylic and nylon textiles. They are used because they are affordable and strong. The issue with this is, that every time you wash these synthetic fabrics they shed tiny plastic fibres called microfibres. This is a big issue as washing your clothes alone causes half a million tonnes of small plastic particles to go into the ocean each year.

Why does this happen?

The simple answer is, that water treatment plants release 40 precent of microfibres they receive into lakes, rivers and the ocean due to their small size. This is also due to the fact that the technology to stop the plastic particulars is not there yet . What can we do to help this issue? We need to find a different way of creating natural fabrics, this has improved over the years, for example Tencel the brand, focuses on using sustainable sourced natural raw material wood. They produce lots of fibres for top fashion brands to source.

Simple things we can do to help ,we should wash clothes less often. The material disintegrates more with each wash. Using a washing bag when doing laundry, a brand called guppyfriend have claimed to reduce microfibre release by 86 per cent, capturing microfibres that do break free. You can add a coral ball to your washing, this brand has developed the technology that says it can prevent the equivalent of 30 million water bottles from entering the waterways per year. The Cora Ball

Even though as consumers we can do a lot to help to prevent this, the real issue is the fashion manufactures, who use synthetic fabrics and are not using alternatives to make their clothing. It’s time the Fashion industry takes responsibility and takes action now to save our planet.

#fashion #Ocean #Tencel #guppyfriend